EV Mode not engaging when it should

That is not you selecting EV mode; it is quite different.
That is a function of the hybrid design......and even calling it "EV mode" is misleading.

EV stands for Electric Vehicle. True EV mode would be: It operates exclusively on battery power until you tell it not to anymore OR the battery gets low.

 

We can quibble about semantics but I never said I "selected" EV mode. The car does that on its own, indicated by the green EV light and the diagram indicating the engine is off. What do you call that?

I've used the EV "button" exactly once to move the car from the driveway into the garage. Pretty much a useless feature (button/"mode") in my book.

 

I understand why they do that. Simplicity. Easy to understand......even though it is a bit misleading.

A "real" electric vehicle will run until the battery is depleted because it has nothing to fall back on.

Except for the plug-in varieties, NO hybrid vehicle ever really acts like a real "electric vehicle" because too many different things cause it to turn the gas engine back on.

I think it should be labeled HV to indicate that it is taking advantage of the hybrid vehicle features at that moment in time.

But it is a philosophical discussion and not worthy of an argument.